Shortcomings and all, Yandle's skills make him special to Coyotes
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Saturday's 3-2, overtime win over the Los Angeles Kings was a perfect illustration of Coyotes defenseman Keith Yandle's game.
He was on the ice for the first two L.A. goals as the Kings took a 2-0, first-period lead. The Yandle critics were out in force, although it's debatable whether he deserved blame on either goal.
Then with 39 seconds left in the period, Yandle kept a puck in at the Kings blue line and got a shot through to the net that Antoine Vermette tipped in to cut the lead to 2-1. Midway through the second period, he sprung Mikkel Boedker on a breakaway with a spectacular stretch pass to tie the game, 2-2.
Late in regulation, he allowed Jeff Carter to get around him for a great chance that goalie Devan Dubnyk stopped with 11 seconds left, but in overtime, he had the second assist on Oliver Ekman-Larsson's game-winning, power-play goal.
"He's got that side of his game that you love," Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said afterward. "It's a little bit of give and take, but I loved the way he competed right down to the end."
When talk turned to Yandle the past two seasons, it was generally for one of two reasons:
-- Would he ever learn to master the defensive side of the game while limiting those mental mistakes that lead to turnovers?
-- What could the Coyotes get for him in a trade?
OILERS at COYOTES
When: Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Gila River Arena, Glendale
TV: FOX Sports Arizona
Injuries: Oilers Fs Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins did not play Tuesday in Los Angeles. The Coyotes have not reported any injuries.
Quick facts: Mike Smith will start in goal for the Coyotes... Arizona F Sam Gagner (2007-14) and G Devan Dubnyk (2009-14) were both drafted by the Oilers... Edmonton C Boyd Gordon was a Coyote from 2011-13... Edmonton made a number of offseason moves, trading for D Nikita Nikitin, F Teddy Purcell, and signing free-agent F Benoit Pouliot and D Mark Fayne and Keith Aulie.
"I'm sure it will start again soon," Yandle said. "I've heard it for so long. It's just one of those things where you learn to tune it out."
Yandle works hard at his defensive game. He's trying to be more active with his stick, he's trying to be more positionally sound, and captain Shane Doan insists he's much better at picking his spots for those risk-reward plays that might have kept Team USA from naming him an Olympian in January.
He may never reach the all-around level of Norris Trophy candidates Duncan Keith and Drew Doughty, but maybe that's OK. Instead of focusing on what Yandle can't do, maybe it's time to start focusing on those otherworldly offensive talents that Doan says ignite the Coyotes offense.
"He's a little bit of a gambler because he believes he can do anything," Doan said. "You can't teach it and if you squash it, it's hard to ever get it back. But the thing is, he does things that nobody else can do. He's one of those guys who has the ability to try something that doesn't work, and then he'll try it again and you get a goal.
"Offensively, he's as good as there is in the NHL."
It's true the Coyotes do not play Yandle and partner Michael Stone against other teams' top talent. Yandle also sees a greater percentage of faceoffs in the offensive zone than the defensive zone. Tippett protects him a bit. But there is enormous value to his game, as evidenced by general manager Don Maloney's phone records.
"To Keith's credit, he's a player that other teams always talk to me about, and yet when you look at our team and look at what he's done for the last four our five years and leading our team in points the last two, I think he's underappreciated," Maloney said. "When we're down a goal and need offense, you can't get him out on the ice enough.
"I think he made a concerted effort to improve his own game, which is great, and (assistant) Jim Playfair has done a nice job helping him with that. There is still upside to him without the puck, and maybe more of a role on the penalty kill as he matures, but he's so valuable to our team in so many other ways that I think it's a disservice to Keith to keep up with the trade talk."
One of those values is something most fans or media members never see because it happens within the privacy of the locker room.
"He's not really a practical joker, but he always has something to say about everything and it's always funny, so it gets to the point where you're waiting for Yands to say something because you know you're going to laugh," said goalie Mike Smith, who has an equally commanding presence in the locker room. "He has perfect delivery; perfect timing. He's a great player on the ice, but he brings way more than that, and it's important to have a guy like that to keep the locker room loose."
You get a sense of Yandle's personality when you watch FOX Sports Arizona's Building The Pack, which goes behind the scenes with the team. In one restaurant scene, Yandle goes on and on about the waiter pushing meatballs on the players.
"It's not that it's any one thing he says, it's just non-stop, constant, south-Boston, crass, sarcastic, dry, running commentary," Doan says, rolling his eyes and laughing. "And here's the other thing people don't know. He loves to dance after wins. He used to do the Dougie. I don't know what he's doing now. It's just rhythm or flow or something."
Yandle seems genuinely embarrassed when you ask about this side of his personality -- one he almost never shares with the media. Eventually, you give up and ask a different question, like how it feels to be held to a higher standard than almost any Coyote.
"I think everybody is held to a high standard. You're in the NHL. You've got to do things to help your team win games," he said. "For me to be that guy to be counted on to help win games, I take pride in that. Why would that bother me? That's a good thing and something you work your whole life to have."
Yandle may never silence his critics, but when talk turns to trading him, Doan gets visibly upset. Part of this is because they are such close friends. They sit next to each other in the locker room at Gila River Arena. They sit next to each other in the locker room at the Ice Den, and they sat next to each other in that dinner scene in Building The Pack.
But Doan has lost close friends to trades before. He still stays in close contact with Colorado's Danny Briere. Doan's main beef is that he thinks people miss just how critical Yandle is to the Coyotes' success.
"It's completely absurd," he said. "He gets a puck and skates it from one end of the ice to the other and all people want to talk about is, 'Yeah, well, he turned the puck over in the second period.'
"Everyone forgets that only two or three guys in the league can do what he does coming out of the zone, and that gets our offense going. He's like a Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card when he gets the puck.
"But he gets held to a different standard where people want him to do this and this and this. If he could do all of that, there isn't a team in the league that could afford him."
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